One More Time

Right now, the second largest group of readers of this Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blog is from Brazil. I was therefore not surprised to find at the centraldoxadrez website the famous Blackburne game against the Jerome Gambit.

It's worth showing again (with notes translated from the Portugese) because it's such a fun game. Plus, it's a good reminder to those who play Black how to carry out the Blackburne Defense (see "Having said A...")


Jerome - Blackburne
London, 1890

The name of the player of the White pieces is an error: Alonzo Wheeler Jerome never visited London, nor did he ever get to play his favorite opening against him. I think the mistake began in one of Eric Schiller's books – I contacted him with a correction.


Also, the year "1890" is an odd slip. Blackburne refers to the game taking place "about 1880" in his Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899), although a contemporary source – the Brooklyn Chess Chronicle – gave the date as 1885.


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

As incredible as it seems, this madness has a name. It is the Jerome Gambit, played here by its author! Analysis of this line has appeared on the Internet. What idleness is capable of generating!

4… Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6

Blackburne did not want to be on the defense after 6… Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6, but even so the sequence 8.f4 Qf6! provides a great advantage to Black.

7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8
White loses numerous tempos moving the Queen to capture the Rook. Meanwhile, Black mobilizes his pieces and looks to uses his enormous advantage in development.

8… Qh4

Threatening … Qxf2+ and defending the h7-pawn. In this way, the Queen has joined the attack without loss of time.

9,0-0 Nf6 10.c3?
The idea was to play 11.d4 cutting to the action of the Black Bishop along the c5-f2 diagonal. However, the correct move would have been 10.Qd8 that pins the Black Kinght at f6 and hinders the Black attack.

10… Ng4!

The Knight is brought into the attack. Black threatens … Qxh2 checkmate.

11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1
Or 12.Rxf2+ Qxf2+ 13.Kh1 Qf1 checkmate

12… Bf5!

Another Rook is sacrificed so that the Bishop quickly enters the game.

13.Qxa8
13.exf5 Rxh8 gains the Queen and the game.

13… Qxh3+! 14.gxh3 Bxe4 checkmate

Club Player's Opening

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is a club player's opening. That's who plays it, that's who analyzes it (with a few exceptions, like NM Eric Schiller and IM Gary Lane), that's who improves it and that's who finds ways to stymie it.

Part of the excitement of the opening for me is the way players can put a personal touch on it. Pete Banks ("blackburne") has popularized the Banks Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf8 6.Qh5) and continues to win with it, even after mika76 at Gameknot.com put forth a refutation.

Lt. G.N. Whistler may have invented Whistler's Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7) but Brian Wall and Tyrin Price much more recently showed how dangerous it was.

It is always great fun for me too play through games in my database and look for individualized interpretations, from viejoasquerosos's predeliction for playing Bc4 and Bxf7+ (or ...Bc5 and ...Bxf2+) at the earliest possible moment, in any opening, to equally inventive ideas like in the following game.

weenar - Quixote
blitz, FICS, 2000

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+


4...Kxf7 5.Ng1

Wow... weenar decides that the essence of the Jerome Gambit is displacing the King, followed by a Queen check. In what has to be the most outrageous of the "modern" lines, this check is prepared without further sacrifice.

Other retrograde lines that I can think of offhand are 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Ng8 and 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 followed by Ng1.
5...Qf6 6.Qh5+
True to the main idea, although 6.Nf3 may have been stronger.

6...g6 7.Qg4
The Queen, mindful of such lines as 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Qh4+ 3.g3 Qe7, etc., should have retreated to e2.

7...Qxf2+ 8.Kd1 Qf1 checkmate
Admittedly, that didn't go too well.
It has been said that opening innovations will lose the first and last time they are played; the former because they are not quite understood, the latter because they are understood too well. In between the two? That's where the excitiement is.

Joker's Wild (conclusion)

We conclude an article (see "Joker's Wild (1)" and "Joker's Wild (2)") by Louis Morin ("mrjoker") of Montreal, Canada, a long-time Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde member. He completes his response to the "Bashing the Jerome Gambit" chapter in Schiller and Watson's Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings (2003), and your editor has a few words to add.

17.b5! Kb6

17...Kxb5?? 18.Qd3+ is completely hopeless for Black. Try it!

18.Qd3! c6

19.Nc4+ Kc7 20.Nxd6

with much the better game for White. So after their suggested 6...Ke6 7.f4 Qf6! Schiller and Watson should have seen the obvious 8.Rf1 and analyzed reasonable moves such as 8...g6 or 8...Nd3+ (best in my opinion). But as it is their "piece of analysis" does not teach us very much. One can only wonder if the rest of the book has the same pedagogical value.

Louis Morin (mrjoker)
Montreal, Canada

It is likely that the analysis in "Bashing the Jerome Gambit" is Eric Schiller's work, as it is largely a repeat of his analysis given in Unorthodox Chess Openings (1998, 2002) and Gambit Chess Openings (2002). Other analysis in Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings is more reliable – I am thinking of the coverage of the Danish Gambit, for example.

Here's a game that shares the first 8 moves with the above analysis, although Black varies with 8...g6: mrjoker - jmt (1516), blitz, ICC, 2008,1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Qf6 8.Rf1 g6 9.Qh3+ Ng4 10.Qxg4+ Ke7 11.Qe2 Qd4 12.c3 Qg7 13.d4 Bb6 14.g4 d6 15.f5 g5 16.e5 dxe5 17.dxe5 Kd8 18.f6 Qf7 19.Bxg5 h6 20.Bh4 Be6 21.Nd2 Kc8 22.b3 a6 23.Ne4 Kb8 24.0-0-0 Ka7 25.c4 Ba5 26.Kb2 Rb8 27.Bf2+ Ka8 28.Nc5 Bb6 29.Qe4 Black resigned

Joker's Wild (2)

We continue with an article (see "Joker's Wild (1)") by Louis Morin ("mrjoker") of Montreal, Canada – a long-time Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde member – as he gives his response to the "Bashing the Jerome Gambit" chapter in Schiller and Watson's Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings (2003).

11.d4!

At the cost of a pawn White opens the game and puts the centralized King in real danger.

11...Qxd4 12.c3!

Attacks the Queen with tempo.

12...Qc4

I cannot give each and every variation, but 12...Qd3 is strongly met by13.Rf3 Qc2 14.Nd2. With his Queen out of play and his King dangerously standing in the center, Black will soon have to give back at least his Bishop, for example 14...Kc6 15.b4! Bd6? (he should leave his Bishop where it stands) 16.e5! Bxe5? (same comment) 17.Qc4+ Kd6 18.Ne4+ 1-0

analysis
diagram





13.Nd2!

Still attacking the Queen with tempo!

13...Qe6 14.Qg3+

Now attacking the King with tempo.

14...Kc6

Of course not 14...Qe5 15.Nc4+

15.b4!

And now attacking the Bishop with tempo. Black is so busy defending against so many threats that he cannot save this Bishop anymore.

15...Bd6?

Black should let his Bishop go, for example 15...Bb6 16.a4 a5?? 17.b5+ followed by mate.

[to be continued]

Joker's Wild (1)

This article is by Louis Morin ("mrjoker") of Montreal, Canada. mrjoker is a long-time Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde member, and his games have appeared on this blog numerous times before.

I hope readers enjoy this contribution, especially those who question whether "serious analysis" and "Jerome Gambit' can fairly occupy the same sentence.

I just bought the book Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings by Schiller and Watson, because I was eager to read the section entitled "Bashing the Jerome Gambit". Should I say that I am very disappointed? Even though though the authors are strong masters, their piece of analysis is very lousy at best.

Basically, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+

the authors suggest that Black can get a promising position after 6...Ke6 7.f4 Qf6! 8.Nc3 Ne7 9.Rf1 g6 10.Qh3+ Ng4! because the f-file remains closed and White's attack fades away.

I will NOT discuss this position for a very simple reason: it it completely irrelevant!Schiller and Watson simply missed that their suggested 8.Nc3 for White is a losing blunder! Black gets a winning position after the obvious 8...Qxf4 9.d4 Nf6!
(they probably only looked at 9...Qf6 10.d5+ Kd6 11.Nb5+ Ke7 12.Bg5), for example 10.Bxf4 Nxh5 11.Bxe5 Bb6 followed by 12...d6.
White is simply a piece down for a Pawn, with no compensation whatsoever.
Instead of 8.Nc3? losing the f4-pawn and the game, White should play the obvious 8.Rf1, and unfortunately Schiller and Watson do not say how Black should continue. But wait a minute. Suppose Black plays 8...Ne7, then White will answer 9.Nc3 and Black is back in the variation he wants by 9...g6 10.Qh3+ Ng4! etc. Right?

Wrong! After

8.Rf1 Ne7?

White gets a promising game with the simple

9.fxe5 Qxe5 10.Qg4+
and now we see the flaw in 8...Ne7?. Black would like to go back to e7, but unfortunately a Knight is occupying this vital square. So the King has to stay in the center with 10...Kd6. How should White react?

[to be continued]

Not Playing the Jerome Gambit Either

Yesterday's post was enjoyable enough that it was worth looking up another, similar, game in which the first player did not play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). Again, Jerome-ish themes echo throughout.

Samuels,L - McCudden,J

Metropolitan Chess League NY, 1925

Notes by Arnold S. Denker unless otherwise indicated, from his "Miniature Games" column in the January 1935 Chess Review (translated from descriptive to algebraic notation)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.d3 Na5?

4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Qh5+ Ke6

If 5...g6 6.Qxe5 winning back the piece with a winning position.

[Obviously Denker expected Black to protect his Rook. Otherwise he would have looked at 6...Nc6 7.Qxh8 h6 8.Bxh6 Bxh6 9.Qh7+ Bg7 10.Nf3, a line Michael Goeller suggested over 70 years later – see "Eric Schiller Doesn't Play the Jerome Gambit". With a Rook and three pawns against two Bishops, White would have a slight edge rather than "a winning position." – RK]

6.Qf5+ Kd6 7.d4

[As we've seen in Schiller - Shipman, New York 1981, 7.f4 was the stronger pawn move – RK]

7...Nc6

8.dxe5+ Kc5

Forced. If 8...Nxe5 9.Bf4 Qf6 [and here Denker wrote "10.Kt-B3!" It is unclear if he meant 10.Nc3! or 10.Nf3! Actually 10.Bxe5+ Qxe5 11.Qxf8+ was the strongest continuation – RK]

9.Be3+ Kb5 10.Qh5


10.e6+ d5 11.exd5 Nb4 12.d6+ Ka6 would also win, but the text move is much finer and wins in shorter order with the continuation Qe2+.

[In response to 10...e6+ Rybka 3 suggests 10...Ka6 11.Nc3 b6 12.0-0-0 Nf6 with a slight edge to Black – RK)

10...Na5 11.Nc3+ Kc6 12.e6 d5

If 12...dxe6 13.Qb5+ Kd6 14.Bc5+ Ke5 15.Be7+ wins the Queen

13.exd5+ Kd6
White now mates in two.

14.Nb5+ Ke7 15.Qf7 checkmate

Eric Schiller Doesn't Play the Jerome Gambit

American author and FIDE Master Eric Schiller doesn't play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). Despite his interest in unusual opening lines, he has spent far more time providing the club player with refutations of the Jerome.

His 2003 (with John Watson) Survive and Beat Annoying Chess Openings has a chapter on "Bashing the Jerome Gambit," which would be something akin to "Weapons of Mass Destruction versus the Mosquito" if it didn't at least shine a light on the poor, neglected creation of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome.

Still, as a followup to my two posts on Adolf Albin and the Jerome Gambit (see Part 1 and Part 2), I was wandering through my database when I came across the following game. There's at least a slight resemblance in the play to, well, you know...

Schiller - Shipman
New York, 1981

1.e4 Nc6 2.Bc4 e5 3.d3 Na5


4.Bxf7+
International Master Gary Lane (author of a couple of books on the Bishop's Opening), in one of his Opening Lanes columns at ChessCafe, wrote, in response to a reader who had asked about this line

I wanted to dismiss this bishop sacrifice, but in the spirit of the King's Gambit, I had to see what happens. I was surprised to realize that White is doing very well.

Michael Goeller (maintaining the best online resource for the Bishop's Opening), in his article on "The Hamppe - Meitner Motif" (see "Hamppe -Meitner Revealed" as well as "Godfather of the Jerome Gambit?" Part I, Part II, Part III, and Endnote) for the Kenilworth Chess Club website is more assertive, noting

If White does not have this move it's hard to see how he might even try to gain the advantage.

4...Kxf7 5.Qh5+ Ke6
Of course, the Jerome-ish 5...g6 was an option for Black, but not a particularly good one.

White plays 6.Qxe5 attacking the knight and rook, when 6...Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Nf6 8.Bxb4 is just very good for White – LaneInteresting, but ultimately unsatisfactory, is 5...g6!? 6.Qxe5 Nc6 7.Qxh8 h6 8.Bxh6! (8.Qc3?? Bb4! points up how much difference d3 for White can make!) 8...Bxh6 (8...Nxh6 9.Nc3) 9. Nf3 and White's Queen will not be trapped, meaning White retains a slight material edge and the safer King – Goeller

6.Qf5+

White has a much simpler alternative here: 6.Nf3! Qf6 (6...Nc6? 7.Ng5+ Ke7 8.Qf7+) 7.Ng5+ Ke7 8.Nc3 c6 and White wins back his material with advantage by 9.b4 or 9.Nxh7!? – Goeller
Instead, 6.Nf3 is met by 6...d6! and this simple way to deal with the threat against the e5-pawn 7.Ng5+ Kd7 8.Nf7 Qe8 9.Qf3 Nf6 10.Nxh8 Be7 slightly favors Black because he has two pieces for the rook, but 11.d4 is interesting since the king is misplaced on d7 – Lane

6...Kd6 7.d4

It appears that Schiller wished (mistakenly) to transpose directly to Hamppe - Meitner, but he thus missed his chance to turn White's extra tempo to advantage – Goeller

The move 7.f4 is stronger, according to Goeller and Lane ("The chase is on and White is in hot pursuit of the king").
7...Kc6 8.Qxe5 d5
9.exd5+ Kb6

Black can play for the win with 9...Qxd5! 10.Qe8+ Bd7!! 11.Qxa8 Nf6 12.Qxa7 (12.Nc3 Qxg2 13.Be3 Nc4 14.O-O-O Nxe3 15.fxe3 Qxh1) 12...Qxg2 13.Qxa5 Qxh1 14.d5+ Nxd5 15.Qa4+ Kb6 16.Qxd7 Qxg1+ 17.Ke2 Qxc1 18.Qxd5 Bc5. The text move should also favor Black, but it is much less clear – Goeller

10.Nc3 Qe7 11.Na4+ Kb5 12.Nc3+
Here 12.b3 was the move to draw.

12...Kb6
There was more in 12...Ka6.
13.Bf4 Bf5 Drawn

If Black had wanted to play for a win, he might have tried 13...Nc4!. It remains unclear to me whether this was a pre-arranged draw gone wrong or a real contest – Goeller